Under the Mistletoe
by RogueShadowX
Summary: It's almost Christmas time in the Netherworld and Laharl is having a hell of time trying to find out what the hell he found without Flonne's help and Etna's just looking for a way to kill some time. Who knows what'll come of it when he forces her to help?


Underneath the Mistletoe

By RogueShadowX

It was a basic day in the Netherworld. The year was coming to an end and all the vassals were busy cleaning out the castle and putting up decorations to celebrate some holiday, which was naturally Flonne's idea. This time the holiday had something to do with trees, lights, and good will towards others. All of which Laharl did not particularly care for, especially the last one.

The Fallen Angel had promptly turned down Laharl's idea of using the petrified, brown plants that were in the castle's garden, saying that they most definitely had to be fresh and green. And so, with his bright idea shot down, Laharl was stuck picking through boxes of ornaments that Flonne had ordered from Celestia.

"The nerve of that fallen angel… who does she think she is ordering me in my own castle. I should just kick her out the castle and prohibit the celebration of anymore stupid holidays once and for all."

However despite his words, he was still going through the decorations and gifts, not intending looking for her throughout his castle just for something he had the feeling he wouldn't go through with anyway.

"Oy, Etna… what the hell is this?"

He held up a few small branches tied together with a red ribbon and decorated with red berries, curious as to what the hell he was being forced to look through. All of it was new and foreign to him, but he had a feeling that this object was particularly special.

"Huuuuuh? Why are you asking me?"

Etna looked up, mostly uninterested in what was going around her. Instead she was reading the latest magazine gossip of what was going on in the Netherworld. Not that she really cared for those kind of things, but it was a hell of a lot better than being forced to deck the halls. Unlike the blue haired Overlord, she was quite resolved not to do something that was suited for the Prinny squad, on which she forced the job upon instead.

"You know I'm not exactly the most up-to-date person when it comes to human holidays. Why don't you just ask Flonne about it? Unless, of course you're too embarrassed to do something like that. You think after all this time you'd be a little better around her, but there are still moments where you just act like a little school boy with a crush on her."

She then gave her trademark devilish grin, knowing that she had touched upon a sensitive topic in the Overlord's mind.

Upon hearing her retort, Laharl's face immediately turned red, though out of embarrassment or anger was still undecided. Naturally he'd be inclined to insist it was the later instead of the former.

"What! A school boy with a crush? I'll show you a crush! In fact, I'll show you how bad I can crush you right now!"

Charging up an Overlord's Wrath that barely touched the ceiling; he aimed upon Etna, waiting to see if she would be taking back her words anytime soon. She gave a small sigh, and upon uttering something about immaturity, whipped out a legendary spear to face the attack, just in case he decided to let hell loose upon her.

They stayed in that position for a small while, before Laharl decided to dissipate his attack and walk away with a 'hmph'.

"I'll just look up the damn thing myself. How hard can it be after all?"

Watching the Prince's retreating back, she gave a small smile and tucked her spear away.

"Guess he's a little more mature than I gave him credit for. He's still quick to anger though."

She began to walk away in the opposite direction before she stopped with a melancholy look on her face.

"I wonder if he really does like her… Sure he always denies it, but he's never been that nice to anyone before. Not like he'd ever admit it though."

Breathing in deep and letting it all go, she slapped a smirk back on her face and walked away with her hands behind her head.

"Oh well! No use thinking about it! Let's see if I can find something around here to kill the boredom."

_Some time later…_

"Ah hah! This is it! I finally found it!"

Etna looked up from her game of whack-a-prinny to see what the fuss was about.

"What's up, Prince? Find some erotic magazine or something?"

Laharl stepped down into the game room with a disapproving scowl on his face.

"No, you know damn well I'd never touch those products manufactured by perverts. I was talking about this."

Taking out a book entitled 'Christmas and Related Traditions', he threw it on the floor next to her where it landed with a thump.

"Christmas? Isn't that the holiday that Flonne is preparing for?"

"That's right. I was finally able to remember what that love freak was preaching about. The answer to what that plant was is most likely in here."

"And…?"

"And you're going to help me look for it!"

Etna crossed her arms with a look of disbelief on her face, with her tail swaying back and forth in irritation.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Do you really have anything better to do?"

She looked at her game, still in progress, and after whacking the Prinny's hard enough to make them explode, she tossed the mallet aside and shrugged.

"Eh, what the hell. Better than nothing I suppose."

_15 minutes later…_

"I take it back. I think nothing may actually be better than this."

Both the demon overlord and vassal were laying next to each other with their stomachs on the ground and the encyclopedia in front of them. Laharl had the left pages, while Etna took the right. While she was enjoying the quality time with her master and the closeness of their bodies, looking through the pages was getting damned boring.

"I don't like it any better than you do! However, I'm going to find this thing even if it kills me, and since you're my vassal you'll me too whether you like it or not."

She merely rolled her eyes at his stubbornness and continued reading on.

'Well, I'd rather be bored with him than bored by myself…'

"Ah-hah! Here it is!"

She pointed to an article within the page grinning like a cheesier cat.

"That thing you found is called… mistletoe. Apparently you hang it over arches and doorways. It says that if two people meet underneath the mistletoe, tradition has it that they have to… kiss!"

Etna's eyes flew open in shock, as did Laharl's when they heard the description from the book.

"Wow those humans sure are scandalous aren't they, Prince?"

"Huh? I guess so… Man, humans come up with the dumbest things. Being forced to kiss just because a dead piece of foliage is hanging above you is sort of out there."

The red haired vassal got up from the floor and brushed herself off.

"You have no sense of romance do you? Well, look at it this way, using that you could force a certain miss former angel to kiss you. That's pretty demonic, stealing a kiss like that."

The overlord just sighed and getting up, looked her in the eyes.

"It's pretty idiotic in my opinion. One, that you'd think I'd go through the trouble of hanging it up. And two, that you think I'd want to kiss her."

"Laharl-san! We need your help quick! There's not enough people manning the ladder! It's about to tip over!"

He shrugged and calmly walked up the steps, in no rush to help her, but still going nonetheless.

"Well mystery solved. Thanks for the help, Etna."

With those words he disappeared through the doorway, on his way to presumably help Flonne.

"Heh, you're the one who forced me to help. Though I still would've done it willingly."

Etna just smiled sadly at the thought then picked up the book, following Laharl's path.

_Later on…_

After putting away the book and killing some more time, the demonic vassal decided to wander around the castle looking at the decorations being put up. There was nothing of particular interest, though they all looked pretty enough. Then spotting a familiar girl in white and red, she decided to walk on over and see what was up.

"Hey, Flonne. How's it going?"

Hearing the voice, the fallen angel turned around and beamed a smile that would brighten up even the darkest of hearts, and if not then said angel would force it to brighten or end up kill them trying.

"Hello, Etna-san!"

Raising an eyebrow, Etna put her hand on her waist and gave a suspicious look at the fallen angel.

"You're in an awful good mood. Did something good happen?"

"Yep! I believe that the kindness in Laharl's heart is finally starting to become stronger."

"Oh? What makes you say that?"

She put her finger to her chin in thought, giving a 'hmm' sound as she tried to remember what it was that made her think that.

"Well, when I called Laharl for help, it only took him 10 minutes for him to come and help us! Before it surely would've taken 30 minutes or more!"

Etna blinked, slightly stunned that Flonne took that as a good thing.

"Actually, if he was the Prince he was before, I'm sure he would've just gone to sleep or hang out somewhere till you were done decorating."

"Ah… you may be right… but still! I can feel it! His heart is slowly starting to open up to the idea of love!"

Once again, Etna blinked, this time sweat dropping along with it. Then shaking her head and waving her hand in dismissal, she turned around, getting ready to find something else to do.

"Oh by the way, Flonne. Have you seen Laharl?"

"I haven't seen him since he helped to put away the ladder. You might wanna try the hallways though. He mentioned something he had to do over there."

'He actually helped with the cleanup? He may not be the nicest demon out there, but he sure is willing to go out of his way for her…'

"Ah… thanks, Flonne. See you later then."

"Alright, Etna! See you later!"

As Etna began to walk away, she crossed her arms over her chest and began thinking.

'Should I even bother trying to look for Laharl? He's probably busy putting up decorations despite what he said. Probably because of Flonne… I guess I could always tease him or something, but it sure gets harder to do each time. It's actually starting to hurt a little… Damn it! What the hell's the matter with me? It's not like I'm in lo-'

"Oy, Etna! There you are. Where've you been?"

She blinked and looked up ahead where Laharl was leaning against the arch in the throne room.

"Heh, should've known you'd been here… I was just killing some time. Why do you wanna know?"

"Well I have been waiting here a while, waiting for you to come by."

She lowered her head so that her bangs covered her eyes.

"Why? Need me for something again?"

Giving a sigh, he grudgingly walked over to where she was and grabbed her hand, guiding her to the throne room.

"Just come over here, okay? I need your opinion on something."

Still having her head down, she turned to face Laharl slightly curious on what it was.

"And what is it?"

Laharl pointed up at the stone archway and she raised her head to follow his finger.

"Huh! Isn't that the mistletoe? Why is it-"

Before she could finish her sentence though, Laharl silence her by putting his lips over her own and wrapping his arms around her waist. As the shock wore off, she decided to deepen the kiss almost as if she were trying to melt together with him in his embrace. To her, nothing had ever felt that good as what she was experiencing that moment.

Eventually breaking it apart, she looked up at him unsure of what to think.

"Why did you…"

Laharl rolled his eyes and turned around.

"You're such an idiot. I already told you before…"

Turning around, he gave his trademark grin with his arms over his chest.

"I told you I had no desire to kiss Flonne. You should really put some more faith in my words."

Giving a small smile, she walked closer to him till they were nose to nose.

"That was pretty gutsy of you, stealing my first kiss."

Grinning, he gave a small kiss before pulling away again.

"What are you talking about? I said it before didn't I? What's yours is mine and what's mine is also mine."

"So I'm yours now?"

"If you want to be…"

"Do you want me to be?"

"I want all of you."

Giving another kiss, he smiled in a teasing way and began to walk away.

"Maybe later though. I need to stop Flonne from defacing my castle before she decides to really go overboard."

Slightly disappointed he stopped the kiss, she decided to go ahead and follow him.

"Thought you never would've gone through the trouble of hanging that thing up to begin with, Prince."

She heard him chuckle a little bit, but he didn't stop walking.

"Well you know Etna…"

Turning around, he flashed a grin at her.

"Some demons can turn out to be worth the trouble."

THE END

Well there you have it folks! Some short fic I decided to type up for the season's greetings! I still haven't finished the latest chapter due to my new job and severe computer problems, but I'm still doing my best. It might have not been that great but I hope you enjoyed it regardless! I had many ideas about how to end it, but ended up going for this one. If everyone really likes it then I might be inclined to do a sequel, though how I would do it is still beyond me. In any case, I give my sincerest apologizes for the wait in Forgotten Memories! I'll try to make it up to you somehow! Seasons greetings!


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